In recent years, much research has been devoted to the development of fuel cells as a source of energy for vehicles. In a fuel cell vehicle, a fuel cell stack uses hydrogen gas to produce electricity which powers an electric motor that propels the vehicle. Fuel cell vehicles are environmentally-friendly since they emit only water and heat as by-products.
Fuel cells are provided with a cooling system to dissipate excessive heat from the fuel cell. A fuel cell cooling system typically includes a pump which circulates a liquid coolant through channels in the fuel cell. In a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, coolant channels in a fuel cell stack are very small in size. When liquid coolant passes through the fuel cell vehicle cooling system, particles may be abstracted from the various plastic, metal and rubber components of the system into the coolant. The coolant carries these particles into the coolant channels of the fuel cell stack. Consequently, the particles have a tendency to block the coolant channels, thereby impeding coolant flow in the fuel cell and causing individual fuel cells in the fuel cell stack to excessively heat up and fail.
Accordingly, a device is needed to filter particles from coolant in a fuel cell and detect the quantity of particles removed from the coolant by the filter by measuring a rise in coolant pressure upstream of the filter. The quantity of particles removed from the filter would be directly correlated with the need to replace the filter in order to maintain optimum filter performance.